Chartist and Druid, perhaps also well known for establishing cremation as legal; he fathered a son at a very advanced age whom he christened Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ). When the child died he attempted cremation, was arrested, but then won the court case and established that cremation was legal.

One of many colourful Welsh characters. The Welsh are wonderful in providing Britain with entertaining schoolteachers, poets, actors and rugby players.

I once shared a flat with a similarly eccentric person whose family lineage dated back to King Athelstan. They were seeking to establish their right to ownership of Long Island, for which they had never received any payment or compensation from the USA.

I also saw the other facet of famous Welsh bard Dylan Thomas, having visited his boathouse before it was tidied up for the tourists. Far from drunken raving, his writing was shown to be painstakingly careful, with draft after draft of single lines of poetry.

I once used a pic of myself as a forum avatar, wearing Arab head-dress, and members shrieked with horror that Yasser Arafat was being pictured on a Buddhist forum. Maybe when you combine Welsh, Irish, English and Austrian ancestry you end up looking like an Arab! LOL

Wonderful! I knew there had to be a good story behind this fellow. I admit I am not brave enough to make waves but I admire people who challenge conventions, especially when they have good cause.

Eccentrics widen our circle: he was a Chartist -- how mild the Chartist demands seem to us now but they are the foundation for most of our civil societies. He was a vegetarian: who reading this would question such scruples today? As a doctor he refused to treat smokers: I have compassion for smokers, but how prescient was this stance in Victorian Britain? I want to be cremated, as does my wife. I have never considered that such practices were illegal in Britain, but of course they would have run counter to the predominant traditions.

Bravo, Dr. Price!

I had never heard of this person before. Thank you for educating me.

I hereby declare December 12th, 2010, Dr. William Price Memorial Day at Dharma Wheel.

Su DongPo wrote:I also saw the other facet of famous Welsh bard Dylan Thomas, having visited his boathouse before it was tidied up for the tourists. Far from drunken raving, his writing was shown to be painstakingly careful, with draft after draft of single lines of poetry.

This doesn't surprise me, however. Thomas's self-destructive tendencies are widely known and well-documented, but a reading of some his best poems and his play Under Milk Wood (I heard a great BBC production of this about five years ago) reveal plainly his passionate dedication to his gift. His personal affairs may have been chaotic, but his art was sacred.